


and two pieces become one whole

by MadHattie



Series: regenesis [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Speculation, i love lup she's not allowed to be dead anymore, set post-ultimate showdown, twin feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 18:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11363025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadHattie/pseuds/MadHattie
Summary: Taako took a gamble on a weird pod thing, and Lup is grateful, if extremely confused.





	and two pieces become one whole

**Author's Note:**

> For KalicoFox, because they asked for it.

Lup came back into the world gasping and screaming like an infant, and there was no one around to hear her. Later she guessed that it was for the best; she didn’t really like the others seeing her vulnerable, but in the moment it was terrifying and confusing and lonely. She was reborn bare and disoriented in a dusty room, with nothing but an old umbrella to welcome her, and she didn’t even remember why the umbrella was significant in the first place. 

There were a lot of things she didn’t remember: not where she was, or how she had gotten there, or what exactly the green slime covering her body was. She knew that she didn’t like that the slime was the only thing about her body, that was for sure. There were parts of her that felt… off. Her hair, for one thing, was much too long. She liked to keep it short because… she had caught it on fire more than once? That was an interesting memory to recover. There were other things too. Certain anatomy was either there when it shouldn’t be, or not there when she definitely wanted it to be. Something in her memories said that she had fixed these problems already, but here they were again. Fuckin hell.

When she finally cleared her head enough to look around the room she was in, it seemed almost too normal to be real. A small back office with a desk, a few shelves, and a swivel chair, all bare. The only thing worth noting was the thick layer of dust that covered everything in the room, making it seem pale and soft. Lup reached out a hand and streaked a few parallel lines across the surface of the desk. Gross. 

There was only one door out of the room, and when she opened it, it looked out onto a large industrial complex filled with high shelves and fluorescent lighting. Almost as an afterthought, she grabbed the umbrella that was propped up against the pod she had emerged from, which had turned from a sickly green color to a pale yellow. If nothing else, the umbrella would shield her from unwanted stares, should she come across any.

The giant warehouse turned out to be a Costco, and honestly she wasn’t even surprised at this point. She remembered Costco: from deep in the fuzz of her mind she pulled out images of ultra-bulk food packages and teddy bears almost as big as she was. The only mildly interesting thing about this one was the fact that all the logos had the word “fantasy” in front of them. That, and the fact that all of the shelves were empty. Well, maybe not  _ all _ the shelves, but most of them at least. She spied a two gallon jar of mayonnaise, and some gummy vitamins before she found the clothing section. Most of it seems to have disappeared along with the rest of the inventory, but there were a few ugly polo shirts and some child-sized jackets. Also some multi-packs of underwear, which she quickly broke into and put on. Then, almost as an afterthought, she grabbed the largest polo shirt that she could find, long enough for it to be a dress on her, thus eliminating the need to find pants, and shimmied it over her head. The shirt made her look like a child playing in their dad’s clothes, but it beat being uncomfortably naked. 

It took her another few minutes to find the exit, and during that time she comes to the realization that there are no shoes here, and that she was going to have to go barefoot for a bit. It shouldn’t be too bad; she remembered going barefoot a lot after her aunt died and she had to strike out on her own. People took more pity on you if they thought you couldn’t afford shoes, so she would hide hers in a bag and only use them for longer walks. She remembered stealing a couple of pairs too, but she couldn’t remember when.

The first thing that hit her when she walked out the door was that the sun was too bright. It was hot and yellow-white, and shooting directly into her eyeballs. It would be kinda poetic if it weren’t so fucking painful. Once her eyes began to adjust, a new kind of pain took the other’s place. Her stomach seemed to flip upside down as she looked out across the large grassy quad. The clouds that hung at eye level, and the sight of them sent vertigo spinning through her brain. What the fuck was this place?

“Yo! Taako!” A man in a crisp blue uniform jogged towards her, a haphazard smile intersecting the fresh scar on his cheek. “I thought you and Magnus were going to repair some of the walls in the icosagon. What’re you doing out here?” 

“What? I-” Lup’s head buzzed. The man’s were blurry somehow, indistinct. She took a step forward and the ground seemed to wobble beneath her.

“Oh man, have you been hitting the bottle already?” The man stepped forward and held out a hand to steady her. “I know I’m one to talk, but that’s not the best way to cope, even after all we’ve been through. Do you want me to take you back to your room?”

“If you don’t mind.” Lup didn’t understand most of what this man was talking about, but this “Taako” person’s room might hold some answers. If not, it would probably at least have some shoes. 

“Alright, come on.” The man offered an elbow, and Lup gratefully looped her arm through it. “I’m liking the new look, by the way. It’s, uhh, a bit different.”

“I’m a fashion icon, baby.” Lup may be disoriented, but she was sure as hell not going to let anyone judge her style decisions, even when they were awful. “Just wait ‘til you see this on the runway next season.”

The man laughed. “If you say so.”

 

The man led Lup down a small elevator, and Lup takes a moment to appreciate how much she likes elevators. All the convenience of stairs, but without the exercise, or the excessive boob jiggle you get when you go down them too fast. She wondered what kind of fancy ass quarters she was going to that had an elevator going down to them, and also why their elevator was going down in the first place. 

“Well, here you go.” The elevator door opened to reveal… another door. A small sign on the front of it proclaimed that this was the home of Magnus Burnsides, Merle Highchurch, and Taako Taaco, although someone had crossed out the names and written “Tres Horny Boys” in big block letters. “Get some rest, okay? I’ll see you around.” The man patted her awkwardly on the back and went back into the elevator, leaving Lup standing in front of the door with no idea of what was going on.

She tried the doorknob first, and is pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked. It might have made more sense to knock first, but sense wasn’t something she really had a grip on at the moment. Instead she opened the door and braced herself for whatever came next.

“‘Sup Mags.” The voice came from a figure spilled out over a worn-out couch. His feet were propped up on the arm, and the brim of his hat was low over his face. “Did you finish the thing Lucy asked us to do?”

“I-” The figure on the couch whipped around, his eyes so wide that the whites flashed. His face looked so much like her own.

“Lulu?” The name was a cry, cracking like it was perched on the edge of a sob. The man jumped off of the couch and sprinted the short distance over to her, folding her into his arms as soon as he could reach. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed tight, and something about that was so familiar that it brought tears to her eyes.

“Lulu, Lup,” the man, Taako,  _ her brother _ , said, “you’re home. My sister is home!”

Lup let the tears fall, watching them soak color into the shoulder of Taako’s blouse. “You are my home, Taako. I found my way home.”


End file.
